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A Generous Man
Book by Price, Reynolds
- GenresFiction
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Reynolds Price
193 books121 followersReynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated at Duke University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford University. He taught at Duke since 1958 and was James B. Duke Professor of English.
His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com
His first short stories, and many later ones, are published in his Collected Stories. A Long and Happy Life was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel. Kate Vaiden was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Good Priest's Son in 2005 was his fourteenth novel. Among his thirty-seven volumes are further collections of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and translations. Price was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.
Photo courtesy of Reynolds Price's author page on Amazon.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 7, 2023
I first read Reynolds Price over 20 years ago. I forget how I learned of him but I purchased a compilation of his three novels and a short story about the Mustian family, set in the countryside of North Carolina. The compilation title is A Singular Family: Rosacoke and Her Kin.
I read the story, A Chain of Love, and then the earliest novel, A Long and Happy Life, originally published in 1962. I fell in love with Rosacoke's voice. In fact, in my reading journal I wrote that Reynolds Price writes the way my sister and I talk.
A Generous Man features Rosacoke's brother Milo and Rato. It also includes a mad dog, a python and Milo's first love, Lois.
In a tale as convoluted as the lineages of cousins in the Mustian family, Milo undergoes his first sexual experiences, the mystery of an inheritance is finally worked out, and so much goes on over a few days that I felt my head fairly spinning.
The wonder to me was how this middle-class, Oxford educated author could have created the characters and travails of the Mustian family. So I read his Preface to the collection in which he fully answered my question.
Now I wonder if in the mid-20th century South, despite the well-defined class system and the systemic racism, there was a way of life in which all these differences mingled side by side. So different from the world today where socio-economic levels, race, nationality, religious views are so compartmented.
Not that there were not terrible conflicts then, but somehow a man like Reynolds Price could interact with the brothers of another family in a hospital, as they all stood watch over dying parents, to the degree that those brothers remained in his imagination until he wrote them into his own stories.
I read the story, A Chain of Love, and then the earliest novel, A Long and Happy Life, originally published in 1962. I fell in love with Rosacoke's voice. In fact, in my reading journal I wrote that Reynolds Price writes the way my sister and I talk.
A Generous Man features Rosacoke's brother Milo and Rato. It also includes a mad dog, a python and Milo's first love, Lois.
In a tale as convoluted as the lineages of cousins in the Mustian family, Milo undergoes his first sexual experiences, the mystery of an inheritance is finally worked out, and so much goes on over a few days that I felt my head fairly spinning.
The wonder to me was how this middle-class, Oxford educated author could have created the characters and travails of the Mustian family. So I read his Preface to the collection in which he fully answered my question.
Now I wonder if in the mid-20th century South, despite the well-defined class system and the systemic racism, there was a way of life in which all these differences mingled side by side. So different from the world today where socio-economic levels, race, nationality, religious views are so compartmented.
Not that there were not terrible conflicts then, but somehow a man like Reynolds Price could interact with the brothers of another family in a hospital, as they all stood watch over dying parents, to the degree that those brothers remained in his imagination until he wrote them into his own stories.
June 9, 2023
A Generous Man is a coming-of-age story about 15-year-old Milo Mustian. It was published in 1966, the year I entered college at Duke University, where Reynolds Price was already acclaimed as our resident literary figure. He had taught in the Duke English department since 1958, but although I was an English major, I never took one of his courses. Nor had I ever read any of his books until now, despite having purchased this one in 1969.
I have a feeling I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read it then, back in my English major days when I was enamored with Faulkner and other Southern authors. Reading it now, I found that Price’s prose style is a little too Faulknerian for my current taste. (I may read Faulkner again, but since I didn’t enjoy my most recent Faulkner book, A Fable, it may be a while before I get back to him.)
I can’t say I was surprised by Price’s prose style, inasmuch as he was also accomplished as a poet. I don’t deny that there is beauty in Price’s prose. And there is some humor in the book too (it features a runaway python named Death, for example). But I have to admit that I was often impatient with the sentences that went on for half a page or more, the overblown descriptions, and the parentheticals.
I more or less understood what Milo is thinking about (sex and love, mostly). But he often lost me. Or more accurately, Price did. I can understand how other readers would find Milo’s story to be profound and compelling. But more often than not, I found myself just looking forward to the end.
I have a feeling I would have enjoyed the book more if I had read it then, back in my English major days when I was enamored with Faulkner and other Southern authors. Reading it now, I found that Price’s prose style is a little too Faulknerian for my current taste. (I may read Faulkner again, but since I didn’t enjoy my most recent Faulkner book, A Fable, it may be a while before I get back to him.)
I can’t say I was surprised by Price’s prose style, inasmuch as he was also accomplished as a poet. I don’t deny that there is beauty in Price’s prose. And there is some humor in the book too (it features a runaway python named Death, for example). But I have to admit that I was often impatient with the sentences that went on for half a page or more, the overblown descriptions, and the parentheticals.
I more or less understood what Milo is thinking about (sex and love, mostly). But he often lost me. Or more accurately, Price did. I can understand how other readers would find Milo’s story to be profound and compelling. But more often than not, I found myself just looking forward to the end.
January 16, 2020
A classic coming-of-age novel that takes place in post WWII South. The author finds good company on a porch swing snugged between Capote and Faulkner. A little heavy on the metaphor, i.e. hunting Death, an escaped giant python, while struggling with an unruly penis. Please don't laugh, it actually works. Life's a beautifully painful bitch and then you die. If you wanna to reminisce about the old South, this one's for you...
March 2, 2022
not to be overly ungenerous, it was not up to his usual.
April 24, 2020
The beginning of this book was long and hard to follow. Some of the language was difficult for me to read (the "n" word constantly in some parts). When I got about 3/4 of the way through, it all came together and all of a sudden there were very beautiful moments throughout. I am glad I finished the book as I am on to "A Chain of Love". This is the next story in a collection that is entirely about "Rosacoke and her Kin."Already I am finding this to be delightful. A Generous Man was the first Reynolds Price novel that actually almost disappointed me. While I cannot strongly recommend it, I am glad that I saw it through to the end!
July 15, 2015
Whenever I want to read something that I know I will love, I always choose a book by Reynolds Price. His poetic prose, unforgettable characters, authentic dialogue, sense of place, and unflinching plots comprise some of the best stories I've ever read. This one was only his second novel, published in 1966, but he was a master at that early stage. RIP, Mr. Price. You still bring tears and laughter to readers who are fortunate enough to seek you out.
January 30, 2014
The prequel to A Long and Happy Life is not better than that earlier novel, but is still worth the time and is colored by what I already knew about the characters. This one has much more Milo than Rosacoke, and a big python named Death figures in with some significance. Maybe it's a clue about the importance of sex in Milo's adolescent life?
March 9, 2013
Prequel to a long and happy life. Rosa coke is 11 years old. This is before meeting Wesley.
June 8, 2016
I enjoyed the writing style but the characterization needed work.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews